Mayer Brown prepares for departure of five London partners

Mayer Brown’s London office is set to lose five partners from its commercial dispute resolution, corporate and real estate practices over the coming weeks.

The partners, all of whom have confirmed their intention to quit, include Matthew Lawson and Simon Willis, two of the lawyers who joined the US firm in 2007 from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert with Clare Canning, the high-profile litigator who left the US firm earlier this year to become global general counsel at Ernst & Young (20 September 2011).

Lawson and Willis are joining the London office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The other partners who are leaving are finance dispute resolution headAndrew Legg, who is joining Eversheds, and real estate partner James Dodsworth, who is joining White & Case.

Corporate partner Stephanie Bates, who currently serves as co-head of the London capital markets group, is understood to be retiring from Mayer Brown.

A spokesperson for Mayer Brown said: “I can confirm these partners are leaving the firm. We wish them the very best.”

Sad to see this happening to a firm that once had so much going for it. In addition to the partners there have been dozens of departures at associate level over the past two years or more. At this rate of attrition, MB London will soon be reduced to a satellite office and serviced office space for travelling US partners. The talent drain and massive real estate overhead is unlikely to make MB London an attractive merger partner. Troubled times ahead.